After my previous post, a number of friends and family members expressed surprise and concern that I'd "gone over" to eating meat! Among the questions they asked were, was I now Paleo? Atkins? Did I think vegetarian diets were a mistake? And so on. So here's a selection of some of the questions, and my answers.
Q: Do you now eat meat every day? Have you become an "Atkins" diet convert?
A: No to both. My husband has similar genes to mine, and we find that eating red meat once or twice a week, plus one or two poultry meals, keeps us feeling healthier. The rest of the time we eat meals based on fish, or vegetarian courses that include dairy foods. My body does seem to need some first-class, animal protein every day, but a lot of the time that's just a tin of tuna or salmon for lunch!
Q: Couldn't you have got all your needs met from a vegan diet with supplements?
A: No again, in my own case. Yes, in theory, for able-bodied people with lower protein requirements. But to obtain all your needs from vegan food, even with supplements, you have to eat a minimum of 1500 calories per day. That's an achievable goal for most people, and if your body responds well to grains, soy and legumes this can be a healthy way of eating. But for me, relatively immobile and in a wheelchair for much of the time, if I eat that many calories I put on weight. This is what happened to me over several years, and culminated in my becoming overweight and developing Type 2 diabetes and hypothyroidism. When I reduced my calories to 1350 a day, I lost the weight, but I could no longer meet my needs for protein. The result was a constant, debilitating tiredness which meant that on most afternoons I needed to sleep, and the rest of the time barely managed to drag myself around, even in my wheelchair. I felt as if I were dying, and in fact my body was desperately trying to tell me that that was what I risked if it didn't receive the right food.
Q: Why do you need so much protein? Most vegans and vegetarians are fine.
A: I blame my genes. Really. When I changed to including meat in my diet, I had a full genetic analysis of my dietary needs, and they confirmed exactly what my poor moving/instinctive centre had been trying to tell me all those years. I need much more protein than most people, and at the same time my body can't digest grains and legumes very well. Soy is out when you're hypothyroid, so the answer is, at least for me, to have animal proteins. My body handles dairy foods very well, so that's now part of my diet. It's wonderful to be able to eat Brie again!
The analysts also recommended that I limit the amount of grains I eat to 3 servings per day (I usually manage 2-4). Otherwise, I should avoid wheat, because I carry genes for celiac and Crohn's diseases, and celiac can strike at any moment without warning. I don't at present need a gluten-free diet, thank goodness, so I eat spelt, rye and oats instead of wheat.
In addition, I also have the so-called "thrifty genes", which means I easily store fat and find it very hard to lose. With that and my diabetes, I have to limit my calories every day. These genes would have helped my ancestors to survive hard, northern European and Russian winters, but are a real nuisance in our food-rich world today.
Q: What kind of meat and fish do you include now?
A: Mostly the "kosher" variety. Whether it's my Jewish ancestry or my body's aversion to certain kinds of foods (and perhaps the former causes the latter), I find pork products very hard to digest and I avoid them. I'm allergic to shellfish, so oysters, shrimp and crab are also out. That leaves lamb and beef, all kinds of poultry, most kinds of fish, and lots and lots of fruit and vegetables. In my house we easily manage 8-10 portions of fruit and veg a day, and my body loves this. What we eat now is a plant-based, Mediterranean diet. The plan we follow these days is low-glycemic and medium carb, but higher than normal in protein.
Q: What do you think of vegetarian and vegan diets?
A: I was so happy to be vegetarian and then vegan for many years, and felt really virtuous. I wasn't hurting any animals, I was helping the environment, and my abstention from meat and fish made me healthier, or so I believed.
There's an interesting and controversial book which address all these concerns - "The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith. I found her conclusions surprising but logical. She shows that eating an omnivorous diet, if we're careful about insisting on the highest standards of animal welfare, can actually contribute to the wellbeing of the planet.
It's true that many people live happily and healthily for years on vegetarian, even vegan, diets. They obviously don't have the same genetic makeup as myself and my husband. For lots of people, less protein is actually better for them, and they thrive on a carefully planned, meat-dairy-and-fish-excluding diet. I'm not one of them.
Q: How can most people know which type of diet suits them?
A: Notice your body's demands. Don't let your intellectual and emotional centres, exclusively, choose your food for you, as I did. Don't let sentimentality interfere in your food choices: that's the wrong work of the emotional centre. Particularly note how well your body heals after cuts and bruises, how your immune system is functioning, whether you're getting tired more frequently, whether you have any unexplained symptoms that could relate to a food deficiency.
And then, if you're not sure, get genetically tested. It's not cheap, but the health benefits are inestimable.
And, although human beings are omnivores and can adapt to a wide variety of diets, there's something immeasurable but real in the way our bodies respond to different food. It's a wholistic response. It may well be that some people - like me - could include every nutritional supplement known to man, and base our food on a vegan diet, and still not thrive. There could be something about the overall effect of including animal foods that, for people like us, provide a clear benefit, even though the individual components of the supplements might theoretically be able to do the same thing.
Final note: When I was a vegan, I was pleased that I had removed myself from the animal-eating food chain. I was no longer part of the dietary regime that had grown out of the hunter-gatherer needs of our common ancestors. But I was too proud; I suffered from hubris. My body protested in its own way, and showed me that, like other people of my genetic type, I had to follow the laws of eating animal foods. I didn't like that thought at all, but in accepting it and eating accordingly I've become more humble and more grateful for my food.
Gurdjieff said that we all contain a wolf and a sheep within us, and we have to learn how to make them live peacefully side by side. He wasn't talking specifically about diet, but I think the same picture can illustrate our dietary requirements. Those of us who need meat must accept that fact, and be grateful that we can obtain it. Some believe that meat exasperates aggression. I don't, but even if that were true, it would just mean that we need to be more observant and notice when aggressive I's are lurking.
Science helps here, although sometimes it's faulty and is later disproved. For example, the Blood Group diet mandates that everyone with blood group A (as I have) can live happily on a vegetarian regime. I used that theory to back up my vegan dietary choices, but it just wasn't true for me. the theory was disproved through observation. The science was incomplete. We are all individuals, and only careful observation and - if necessary - scientific testing to confirm our hypotheses, can show us the best way to thrive. Our instinctive/moving centres are telling us what we need at every moment, if only we would listen.
What of the belief that eating veggie food is more "spiritual"? After all, Buddhist and Carmelite monks and nuns stick to vegetarian food. But needless to say, I don't believe it affects one's spiritual growth, except that if we're not in good health it's harder to be observant and attentive. If a teacher of the stature of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan can encourage some mureeds to eat meat, who am I to disagree? Again, it's a matter of individual type and bodily needs. Only sincere, unclouded observation will help us know what our best diet is.
And it's been pointed out that some of the side-effects of lack of Vitamin B12 - a common problem with vegan diets, even when supplemented - include a feeling of spaciness, light-headedness, and problems in concentrating. Misinterpreted, it could mean that some obligate carnivores eating vegan are misguidedly thinking they're becoming more spiritual when actually they're on the path to pernicious anemia! This happened to me, and it's serious. Observe, observe, experiment and observe some more. And then, if you still want confirmation, get genetically tested.
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